I am finally back on the ship! After 2 weeks and 4 days in Freetown I had just about got used to being back in Africa. When you are away you forget how hot, dusty, noisy, smelly and chaotic it is. When your fingernails become dirty from just walking out on the street. When rubbish strewn streets, stray dogs and daily life lived out in front of you are the norm. Where communication with the outside world is variable at best. And that is how I come to you again after an action packed field service with so much to blog about but no way of doing it.
I will try over the next week to write several (retrospective) blogs about all that I have experienced since our arrival as there is way too much to pack into one!
Suffice it to say that on Sunday we arose before light, packing into the poda poda's* that have carried us faithfully every day (more about that in another blog). As we arrived at the port to greet the ship the sun was rising on a perfect day, the early morning mist partly obscuring the curves of the bay. We rounded the corner expecting to see an empty berth waiting for the ship only to be confronted by another ship still in the berth. It being Sunday no port workers officially on duty - of course. TIA**. So the men in our group were duly roped in (no pun intended) to cast off the ship and move it further down the port. No health and safety requirements here. Our attention turned to the horizon to see the white form of the Africa Mercy appearing through the mist. It was so exciting to see the familiar hull inching into the dock to the sounds of a marching band and beginning to make out the faces of old friends on board.
The ship docked and gangway lowered the welcoming ceremony with the Minister of Sanitation began. Receiving the Sierra Leonean flag was a little boy who had his cleft lip and palate repaired onboard the Anastasis in 2001 who stood proudly in his boy scout uniform, holding the flag aloft.
Lowering the gangway
Once the ceremony ended and after a short wait we were allowed to board the ship. After almost 7 months it felt like greeting an old friend. Everything so familiar but with the realisation that we are still in Freetown. As I look out of the windows at the hills and slums lining the bay it feels like the window on to another world which I was so much a part of for that short time. I consider myself more lucky than most. I get to experience both worlds but sometimes the divide between them seems huge. I pray that I can bridge that gap in a small way this year by showing all those I am caring for the love of Jesus and how it crosses all divides.
*Poda poda - the name for the minibus type taxis that are a common form of public transport
** This is Africa
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